Bats limited by frigid weather as Texas escapes Saturday game against Dartmouth with a win

For the second straight night, Texas baseball gave its fans a scare in a one-run win against Dartmouth.

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It was yet another cold and miserable day out in Austin, but this time Texas’ fans were aplenty at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. With a better atmosphere and the expectations of a bounce back game for head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s squad, fans were rewarded with an equally frustrating win as compared to Friday, this time scoring thrice in a 3-2 victory.

Texas once again started the game strong, scoring in the first inning and looking to have found a better rhythm than the previous game, focusing on walks and base hits against the Dartmouth pitchers who tried to bait the Longhorns into biting at off-speed pitches to incite weak contact.

But this time Dartmouth were the aggressors offensively, scoring an early unearned run on starting LHP Luke Harrison in the top of the 1st. The Big Green reached base five times in Harrison’s 3.1 innings, including an XBH and an HBP.

Harrison’s early exit was a surprising one, especially after Schlossnagle’s controversial late hook of Ruger Riojas in yesterday’s game. Harrison was the SEC pitcher of the week last weekend after a fantastic showing against Ole Miss, and he had given up just a single earned run when Schloss took him out in the fourth inning. Harrison had thrown just 57 pitches, two-thirds of them strikes. He limited any power from Dartmouth’s bats, which made him seem like a lock for a five-inning set.

Instead, Texas looked toward freshman Drew Rerick, the inventor of the new SKOL celebration after Longhorn doubles, and Andre Duplantier II for the majority of their middle relief.

Rerick finished the fourth inning, making the way for an absurd shift from Duplantier. The veteran nearly completed four full innings from the fifth to the end of the eighth, allowing just one hit, no walks and striking out three. His fastball was humming, and 71% of his pitches were thrown for strikes. He dared the Big Green to put the ball into play, an effective strategy for shutting down the passive, small ball-based lineup in chilly weather.

On the offensive side of things, Texas received the majority of its production from two players once again. This time it was Max Belyeu and Adrian Rodriguez. Those two combined for two of the team’s three runs, the only two XBH’s and half of the team’s total base knocks. It took until the bottom of the 8th inning for Dartmouth to retire Rodriguez for the first time.

This game was not without faults for the Longhorns, as expected in a single run win against an Ivy league school. The bottom four hitters of Texas’ order combined to go 1-for-13 with zero walks and four strikeouts. Texas has struggled to find consistent production from players like Rylan Galvan, Casey Borba, Easton Winfield and Ethan Mendoza, and that inconsistency continued throughout Saturday’s game.

Galvan himself had a tough game, committing a near-catastrophic error in the top of the eighth inning, forcing Schlossnagle to take Duplantier out of the game before he could finish the inning. Galvan’s framing was poor, though it felt like Texas missed a lot of calls that could’ve gone their way from the umpire.

Most of the pitching was stellar for Texas, including Max Grubbs’ four-out save, but Schlossnagle knows after this game that he’s got a Will Mercer problem. Mercer, who entered the game with a 9.00 ERA after a disastrous relief inning against Louisville last Friday, threw just seven pitches against the Big Green. One of them was a strike. In his relief of Duplantier, Mercer walked his first batter on five pitches, then fell behind 2-0 against the next Dartmouth batter. Schlossnagle had seen enough, hooking the lefty before it could get any worse. Grubbs hit the inherited batter and loaded the bases, but his inning-ending strikeout was dominant and swiftly done in just three pitches.

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Texas has a lot to work on after this weekend, but thankfully the Longhorns have found the results they needed. Texas is 5-1 to start the season with a Shriners Classic victory and a series win, a great start on paper of the Schlossnagle era. With the weather getting warmer and lineups being figured out, you can expect this team will be ready for the Las Vegas Classic next weekend after looking for the sweep tomorrow versus Dartmouth.